The Center for Data Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will hold its second annual Data Science Research Symposium to support collaboration with industry and drive economic development in the Commonwealth and beyond. The event connects faculty members, senior researchers and graduate students with industry and public sector leaders to explore practical applications of data science and the potential of its research.

More than 120 participants are expected, including industry researchers from 40 companies such as Amazon Labs, Bloomberg, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Elsevier, Google, IBM, Lexalytics, MassMutual, MathWorks, Microsoft, MITRE, Optum, Oracle, Prudential, Systems & Technology Research, Twitter and Voya Financial, with UMass Amherst and Five College faculty and students. Officials from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative are also expected to be on hand.

Andrew K. McCallum, director of the center and professor of computer science in the College of Information and Computer Sciences, says this year’s symposium will showcase the center’s growing portfolio of industry-sponsored data science research, and examine technical trends and future opportunities in this rapidly-growing field. “We’re excited to build on the success of last year’s symposium, which reinforced and validated the importance of public-private collaborations. This year, we’ll bring together top data science research talent in industry, academia and government to share successes, identify new research frontiers and launch transformational new partnerships.”